On the latest episode of The Bank Account, Jonathan and I discuss some of the key trends from the first six months of 2017 with regard to the banking industry. Topics covered include:
- stock market performance (banks down for the six months, but still way up over the last 12 months);
- merger and acquisition activity (same number but larger than last year, plus a more in depth look at North Carolina);
- de novo activity (or lack thereof);
- regulatory relief (and definitely lack thereof); and
- capital raise activity (going strong).
We also congratulate each other on finishing the Peachtree Road Race (Jonathan’s first, my fiftheenth) and Jonathan shares a story where he seems to have exchanged an unfortunate woman’s micro-humiliation related to a debit card denial to a larger humiliation due to poor interpersonal skills. With this episode we are fully switching to our summer schedule, so the next episode will be in a couple weeks.
